Lectures were largely ditched (in face-to-face mode) by the University of Tasmania in 2022, but are far from forgotten, with DVCA Mitch Parsell teaming up with staff member Joseph Crawford to conduct a 22-year review.
Their paper notes that “Large-scale lectures alongside sandstone buildings are two of the most romanticised facets of higher education” and traces the evolution of six types of lectures has emerged in literature between 2000-22.
The pair note that lectures (from the latin ‘to read’ evolved as a staple of the first European universities in the early 14th century and included a picture from the time showing the instructor speaking from a fancy pulpit while students variously take notes, talk or snooze – suggesting that little has changed in 800 years.
The pair found that there was a surprising lack of agreement on defining the nature of a lecture, and set out to do so, noting that only 6.8% of papers reviewed considered student support to succeed, whereas 18.7% looked at factors driving engagement or disengagement.
The emergence of technology has meant that the ancient practice of talking at rooms full of mute, quill-wielding acolytes has fragmented the way lectures are delivered and consumed – face-to-face, online, asynchronous, live etc.
They didn’t note the habit of students in listening to the boring bits at double speed or the possibility of getting an AI bot to take all the notes for you and regurgitate the lecture in a more concise format, but have certainly paved the way for further pedagogical ponderings. Of particular note – this is an easy to read, interesting and well-structured article which would be engaging to most educators. If only all lectures were so interesting.
